Table Of ContentRaphael Jean Boulbes
Troubleshooting
Finite-Element
Modeling with
Abaqus
With Application in Structural
Engineering Analysis
Troubleshooting Finite-Element Modeling
with Abaqus
Raphael Jean Boulbes
Troubleshooting
Finite-Element Modeling
with Abaqus
With Application in Structural Engineering
Analysis
123
Raphael JeanBoulbes
Lyon,France
ISBN978-3-030-26739-1 ISBN978-3-030-26740-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26740-7
MathematicsSubjectClassification(2010): 65Z05
©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2020
Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar
methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfrom
therelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
hereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregard
tojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations.
ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG
Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland
to Jeanne, Harlette and Marie-Kristine
Foreword by Dr. Sonell Shroff
IhavebeenworkingwithFiniteElementAnalysissoftwareforthepastdecadeand
as our understanding of the subject and its utility has increased over time, so have
thenumberofsoftwareandtheanalysistypes.Asauserandfurther,asauniversity
teacher for master's students, I have spent a good amount of effort to get famil-
iarized with multiple software platforms to get, in effect, the same result for
structuralproblems.WhatconcernsmemostwhileimpartingwhateverknowledgeI
can to the students during the few hours of lessons is to be certain that once they
leavethatclassroom,wouldtheybeabletobecomeengineerswhodonotjustwork
out the problems that face them, but solve them efficiently?
When Raphael contacted my boss at the university for a recommendation of a
reviewer in the field for this book, fortunately, I was instantly put in contact with
him. It ispart of mycoursestoteach thestudentshow todebug amodel and what
are the best ways to categorize the errors that they encounter. Coincidently,
ABAQUS is one of the most popular softwares we use at the Aerospace faculty
because of its wide usage in the industry. It comes with an expansive user guide,
and expansive is an understatement; so much so that it is most of the times very
difficult to find exactly what you are looking for in order to troubleshoot the
program. As an advanced Finite Element course, my focus was so much on the
science and the formulation of the finite-element theory that I lacked the
organization of the troubleshooting techniques. Raphael’s idea of this book came
asafabulous newsfor me.Iwouldbeable torest easywithsuchabookoutthere
for the interested students to find.
Ph.D. students, postdocs, M.Sc. graduate students, and even bachelor students
usethissoftwareanddonotnecessarilyhavethetimetogothroughtheentireuser
guide. This book will help them understand how to categorize the error types and
wheretolookforfurtherinformation.Itwillteachushowtousetheinformationwe
receive in the messages from the software itself. And the best part of it is that it is
suited to all users, amateurs, and experienced. It contains enough background
knowledge of important topics that you would need to get started with what the
vii
viii ForewordbyDr.SonellShroff
software is expected to do, and then holds your hand through the error resolution
process. Raphael has managed to cover such important and difficult topics in a
comprehensive manner.Ihope mycolleagues inthe teaching world will recognize
thisbookasahandymanualbothforteachingandforuseintheirownmodelingfor
research.
Brussels, Belgium Dr. Sonell Shroff
September 2018
Foreword by Gautam Puri
IfirstspokewithRaphaelin2011whenhewasworkingforFMCTechnologiesin
Norway. At the time, he was performing FEA simulations on various subsea
technologiesandcontactedmeafterreadingabookIhadrecentlywrittenonPython
scriptingforAbaqus.WehadaconversationaboutrunningGUIscripts,andsinceI
wasabouttograduate,hekindlyoffered toforward myresume tohiring managers
at his company. I eventually ended up accepting a local offer from SIMULIA (the
Dassault Systémes brand that develops Abaqus) here in the United States, but I
must admit that Raphaels offer of an opportunity to work abroad was a tempting
one.
Fortunately, a few years later Raphael found another opportunity where we
could collaborate; he intended to write a book about troubleshooting/debugging
finite-element models in Abaqus and requested me to be one of the reviewers.
Anyone who has worked with Abaqus has experienced the frustration of spending
many hours debugging an FE model and attempting to get it to converge, and so
this sounded like a good subject for a book. I was excited to see a draft version a
few months later.
In my opinion, this book will serve as a guide or a toolkit for engineers when
they run into difficulties with their Abaqus simulations. The first few chapters
provide general information on how an analyst should approach the process of
troubleshootingFEmodelsaswellasanoverviewofsomecommonerrorsandthe
potentialcauses.Later, chaptersprovidedeeper coverageofspecifictopics suchas
materialsandcontactinteractions.Onecouldarguethatmuchofwhatiscoveredin
this book is already included in the Abaqus documentation; however, the docu-
mentation is vast and spans thousands of pages, and the shear amount of infor-
mationoftenmakesitverydifficulttofindtipsthatwillhelptroubleshootamodel.
This book attempts to alleviate this problem.
Manyreaders,particularlyoneswhoarerelativelynewtoAbaqus,wouldbenefit
by reading through at least the first few chapters. They do contain a lot of infor-
mation,whichmaybedifficulttodigestinonesittingbuttheywillhelpfamiliarize
thereaderwiththetypesofissuestheyarelikelytoencounterovertime.Formore
experienced Abaqus users, this book will be useful as a handy reference manual.
ix
x ForewordbyGautamPuri
While it is not possible for simulation analysts to entirely escape the frustration
of diagnosing and fixing Abaqus model errors and solver convergence issues, I do
believethis bookwill help make these situations a little less painfulfor thereader.
Ohio, USA Gautam Puri
September 2018
Foreword by Prof. David Bassir
First of all, thank you to Raphael Boulbes for providing such support for the
mechanical community using the commercial finite-element software Abaqus to
simulate complex problems. Indeed, this book will help users to deal with
finite-element modeling under different aspects like boundary conditions and to
solvetroubleshootingissueswithsuchcommercialsoftware.Itwillbringenormous
knowledgestobothintermediateandadvancedusers.Iwishtogetsuchsupport20
years ago, when I was doing my Ph.D.
With concrete and real practical examples included in this book, it gives also a
referencesforengineersatdifferentmechanicalindustries.Iamconfidentaboutthe
success of this work and I wish all the readers to enjoy reading this book as I did.
Shenzhen, China Prof. David Bassir
September 2018
xi
